Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Sun Tour
More about this event
ARTIST PROFILE | Bury Tomorrow
It’s never too late to be what you might have been. Sometimes you just need a push to take the plunge. Few people would be greater advocates for this truth than Bury Tomorrow.
Faced 18 months ago, following a period of external and internal strife, with the very real reality that it might be time to pack up their successes and close the book on a storied career of 15 years, with their hands forced and backs to the wall Bury Tomorrow instead picked up fate’s gauntlet and set about writing the chapter they had always imagined.
Today, new album The Seventh Sun stands as testament to the bonds and belief required to shape themselves a new reality, a new sound, and a new future.
“The conversations around our future were very real,” vocalist Dani Winter-Bates offers today. It was never meant to be this way, of course. Belatedly released during the uncertain first wave of the COVID pandemic in June 2020, sixth album Cannibal nonetheless marked a commercial and critical high point for the band, charting in the UK’s Top 10 and at number three in Germany and helping tip the band over the career-to-date 200 million stream landmark. Yet shorn of the ability to properly celebrate its release and accomplishments, let alone stand on stage to perform it, for guitarist Kristan Dawson the songs that comprised Cannibal “never really came to their fullest life”. For perpetual road dogs, now shackled at home Bury Tomorrow for the first time felt the frustrating directionless of limbo that affected so many artists the world over. Perhaps it was no surprise when, soon enough, conversations concluded that the band would be parting with founding guitarist/vocalist Jason Cameron in the summer of 2021.
And so with nowhere to hide from urgent questions about their future – “Do we walk away? Do we start something new? Do we continue on, however that may work?” as Winter-Bates assesses – necessity hit. Turns out that it is not only the mother of invention, but reinvention, too. “I feel like we all knew what Bury Tomorrow was, at least musically, but I also felt we had become quite set in our ways,” picks up Dawson. “We had long had the desire to push the boundaries and not write to what Bury Tomorrow had become. I think in that moment I felt like Bury Tomorrow could actually become what we always hoped the initial blueprint for this band would be. It was never about becoming a different band, but pushing the boundaries of what our band could be.”
“That was very freeing,” adds Winter-Bates. “Because if we were going to continue with Bury Tomorrow, we knew we were doing it by choice, not because of a feeling that we had to. We had to look internally at what Bury Tomorrow was. We knew that if it was to continue, we couldn’t simply replicate what the band had been. We had to reset with a different outlook, and a different sense of being.”
A different line-up, too. In Cameron’s sole place, enter both vocalist/keyboardist Tom Prendergast and guitarist Ed Hartwell: a division of labour that would allow a greater focus not only on maximising individual talents, but collectively expanding them, too. Both Winter-Bates and Dawson can speak no higher of their friends than they do, waxing lyrical not only over their technical prowess and dexterity, but of a fresh perspective, energy and freedom they helped instil in a previously well-oiled but highly structured metalcore songwriting machine.
“It was really just letting ourselves say, ‘What best serves the songs we’re writing?’” Winter-Bates explains of this fundamentally retooled approach as a newly formed six-piece – completed by Bury Tomorrow stalwarts Davyd Winter-Bates (bass) and Adam Jackson (drums). “‘Is it a good song? Or is it a good metalcore song?’ Because actually we want to write great songs. That isn't turning our back on metalcore. But I think if we're only striving to be a really great metalcore band, we are you doing ourself a disservice. We created genres so you can transcend out of those genres.”
If standalone singles Death (Ever Colder) and Life (Paradise Denied), released little over a month apart earlier this year, gave a first glimpse at what lay instore, then The Seventh Sun amounts to the glorious arrival at a destination in this new era. Not Bury Tomorrow’s final destination, either, you must understand – but one that both perfectly encapsulates their revivified present while offering further tantalising hints at an unwritten future.
This is no beast tamed, but rather one with its teeth and claws sharpened, intent on killing with targeted precision rather than with overwhelming bludgeoning. Refocused yet no more restrained, The Seventh Sun’s expanded sonic palette platforms sky-high melodies, layered with textured atmosphere, cloaking an underlying savagery.
Convening once more with producer Dan Weller (a collaboration that bore fruit on both Cannibal and its predecessor, 2018’s Black Flame, and gave, in Winter-Bates’ words, a “consistency and [grounding] in what we are good at and what we can be better at”), at his Middle Farm Studios, the band’s only conscious creative decision leading into The Seventh Sun was, as Winter-Bates nods, “not being limited by formulas.” “Rather than writing to a template, we allowed our writing to take us along to where the song was headed,” he says.
“Metalcore is ingrained into my writing. But I feel that this time, I could be inspired by different things,” Dawson agrees. Names as diverse as Bjork, Sepultura, Korn and Thrice are namechecked in quick succession, as is the ‘90s trance music on which the guitarist grew up. Majesty – a piano-led ballad that sits at the heart of the album – began life as an acoustic sketch by Dawson and Prendergast (and described by Winter-Bates as “so good that I told Tom he couldn’t join the band unless he brought that song with him.) In dissecting The Carcass King, meanwhile, Winter-Bates references Slipknot, 30 Seconds To Mars and even the Waltz. The song also introduces the first female vocals to ever appear on a Bury Tomorrow track, courtesy of Cody Frost.
Winter-Bates points to that song as indicative of the new spirit that surrounded the sessions; one of collaboration and confidence-building support, where no idea or feedback was off-limits and leaps into the unknown – alongside avenues that felt at times almost regressively familiar for the album’s forward-facing vision – were embraced with reassuring unity. “It’s about being proud of the instrument that you control, but equally not having that ego to put a stamp on other people's creative journey,” the frontman posits. “It’s freeing when you don’t say no to an idea based on a preconception of what we should or could be. You write best when it’s cohesive and people feel able to trust each other to really put their best foot forward.”
The results are audible across The Seventh Sun. With Dawson and Hartwell being friends outside of the band, the innate ease with which the former’s leads coalesce with his new sparring partner’s rhythms should perhaps come as no surprise, yet both accentuate and spotlight each other’s abilities. Conversely, Prendergast and Winter-Bates had no such prior relationship on which to build one professionally, yet the dynamism of the newcomer’s abilities brings new range and character to Bury Tomorrow, while further driving some of Winter-Bates’ most ferocious performances ever. Perhaps for the first time, the duelling vocals of Bury Tomorrow sound not in competition with each other, but exist as one unified entity – differing sides of the same coin, contrasting shades of the same one voice.
That interplay, too, allowed Winter-Bates to stretch himself as a songwriter, tap into his passion for the cadence of poetry, and draw from vocal influences ranging from La Dispute’s Jordan Dreyer to Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and The Black Dahlia Murder’s much-missed Trevor Strnad.
With Cannibal’s lyrical content focused solely on an introspective look at the frontman’s journey with his mental health, on The Seventh Sun Winter-Bates took the learnings of such personal songwriting and sought to turn them outwards. “A lot of the themes of the record are actually thinking about the band again; it’s really reflecting on where we are at and our place in society,” he begins. “Every single theme as you go to the album will be about a different concept of operating in chaos, whether that is the destruction and the rebuilding, whether that is resetting the clock, beginning again.
“It’d be really easy to dwell in the darkness and sit there and be like, ‘The world is fucked, everything is destroyed.’ But what do we do? We somehow have to operate in that chaos.
“Recovery is an interesting song to me, because it is the most similar to Cannibal: an introspective look of my own mental health once again. But it asks the question of how I can live in such chaos – what is recovery, then, if I'm going to live with this forever? The Carcass King is another: this is life, this is where we are, we have to operate like this we have to move forward like this. It’s a demi theme almost, a thematic feel that you’ll be able to sense through the record. You’ll have moments of like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got this’; you'll have other moments where things seem overwhelmingly hard. And then you’ll have other moments, like Forced Divide, which is pure anger. The Seventh Sun [the title track] is savage, but you know what, sometimes life is savage.”
Elsewhere, Care – the arena-ready album-closer described by Dawson as “showing us what we needed to do to make Bury Tomorrow musically different” – finds Winter-Bates “[looking] back at when we have reached out for help and support and been slapped to the ground; it calls out the behaviours of others”. Begin Again ruminates on how “we have the control and ability to reset time, to turn around a path we are on – you are in control of your own destiny”, and Wrath “is about dealing with loss. It’s understanding that whilst death hurts, we live on in memories and the actions of those we’ve influenced.”
The thematic threads weaved through The Seventh Sun are met in kind by a throughline that musically stitches together each of its 12 tracks – an idea that Dawson has sought to execute for years. “Every single song sets up the next part of the record,” he reveals. “I wanted it to feel like a one long body of work.” In doing so, the album takes on its own kind its own sonic story-telling. “I feel like I was musically at where Dan was at lyrically,” Dawson suggests.
All of this combines, as Winter-Bates asserts, to exhibit “the best version of Bury Tomorrow people will have heard.” Positivity, and possibility, now seems boundless, where not so long ago doubts persisted. “That is as much to do with Tom and Ed joining the band as it is about the rest of us,” Dawson notes. “I think we'd convinced ourselves at times that we weren't friends, when actually, we’re family. You can’t have this sort of life experience and not be and not be as emotionally connected to each other as we are.”
The guitarist points to the album’s numerical title. “You know, there is something in the number seven that is very representative of change. There’s a renewal aspect to it – seven days in a week, seven hells, and so forth. And on our seventh album, that’s the case for us, too. I hope fans hear how much we appreciate the opportunity we have to make music for them. It’s an opportunity for us to showcase our love for, put our stamp on, and represent UK metal. What a privilege that is for us, and we’re ready to prove that we’re doing everything for those right reasons.”
READ MORE >>Supporting Acts
SHOW BY SIMILAR ARTISTS
About HI-FI Annex | Indianapolis, IN
HI-FI Annex is an open-air ALL AGES venue located in the back parking lot of The Murphy Arts Center. The main entrance to the venue is located on St. Patrick Street across from the church. All shows end by 10 pm.
Getting Around the Venue
Frequently Asked Questions About HI-FI Annex | Indianapolis, IN
What are the age restrictions at this venue?
HI-FI Annex shows are always all ages, with a handful of exceptions when a 21+ restriction is in place. Bring the whole family!
Check the individual show listings at hifiindy.com to view if there are age restrictions for your show.
HI-FI Annex requires a valid ID for admission. For guests who will be consuming alcoholic beverages, a valid state or government issues ID is required. Everyone will be carded during check-in. Expired and temporary ID’s are not accepted.
Can I upgrade my to VIP seating?
The Sidestage Lounge VIP access offers a premium exclusive viewing location with an up-close and personal view of the stage. It features a private bar with a full selection of cocktails, beer, and wine. While the Sidestage Lounge is an all-ages area, you must be 21+ with a valid ID to visit the bar. Additionally, it provides a comfortable seating area with tables and couches, as well as dedicated outdoor restrooms for your convenience. Click here to reserve your spot in the Sidestage Lounge.
What items are permitted or prohibited at this venue?
Our security staff performs a thorough screening of all bodies, purses and bags entering the venue. All guests will go through security screening to ensure no weapons or non-permitted items enter the venue. Screening may include metal detection and/or wanding.
Permitted and restricted items may vary by show. Below is a general list of permitted and non-permitted items and activities. Ticket buyers will receive information prior to the show with any updates.
Permitted Items
- Small purse/fanny pack/diaper bag – subject to security inspection
- Umbrellas – small, handheld only
- Strollers
- To-go food from local restaurants
- (1) factory sealed bottle of water or (1) empty, refillable water bottle
- A warm heart & smiles
- Lawn chairs & blankets are only permitted for a select few shows and in designated areas
Non-Permitted Items
For safety reasons, guests are refused entry if they are in possession of prohibited items. Illegal items will be confiscated. If a guest is found inside the venue with a prohibited item, the item will be confiscated and the guest may be ejected from the facility. HI-FI reserves the right to prohibit any item, including items not listed here, from entering the premises if deemed hazardous or disruptive to the event.
- No weapons of any kind: including firearms (with or without permit), knives, multi-tools
- Pepper spray/mace
- Fireworks or flares
- No outside beverages or coolers
- No oversized bags (larger than 12″ x 12″) including backpacks, duffle bags, camelbacks, briefcases luggage etc.
- No drugs or illegal substances
- No laser pointers
- No glass
- No smoking or vaping in venue, designated smoking area outside venue
- No pets or animals – with the exception of documented service animals
- No removable lens cameras or flash photography, tripods, monopods, selfie sticks – unless pre-approved by Event Manager
- No audio or video recording devices – unless pre-approved by Event Manager
- Skateboards, hoverboards, rollerblades, bicycles, scooters – bike parking available outside the venue
- Signs large than 11″ x 17″ or any sign attached to a stick
- Hula hoops, spray paint, silly string
Can I bring a bag into the show?
Yes! You are allowed to bring a small purse or fanny pack, but it may be subject to security inspection.
What’s the parking situation like?
Depending on the day and time, finding a spot can be tricky. On busy show days we advise arriving early to ensure you get a good spot.
Parking is free on all of the surrounding streets in Fountain Square and most parking lots.
The LAZ pay lot directly across from HI-FI Annex (on Prospect St) offers paid parking by the hour and is the closest public parking to the venue.
Rideshare and guest drop-off should take place on the corner of Prospect St and St. Patrick St.
We advise against traveling down St. Patrick St on show days, as it can become congested one-way with traffic coming from both directions.
Bike parking is available outside the HI-FI Annex box office as well as at any of the bike racks on Virginia Ave in front of HI-FI.
What is the camera/photo policy for this venue?
The photo policy for each night is posted at the band’s discretion. This policy can change on a nightly basis. As a general rule HI-FI Annex does not allow any professional photography unless pre-approved by the band. For approved photographers, Photos permitted for the first three songs only. No flash. Media and professional photographers can contact marketing@hifiindy.com to submit a request for photo credentials.
Is there food and drink at this venue?
HI-FI Annex offers a variety of food, snacks and drinks for guests of all ages. Any guest consuming alcoholic beverages must provide a government issued ID and be 21 years of age or older.
Easy Rider Diner accepts pre-show reservations if you are looking for a sit-down meal before the show. Easy Rider Diner is our restaurant connected to HI-FI. Guests who make advance reservations will be treated to a free show poster from that nights show. Posters can be picked up in the diner by asking your server.
Snack Shack
Snack Shack is a concession stand for guests of all ages. Choose from several hot and ready food times from Easy Rider Diner including hamburgers, chicken nuggets, vegan burritos and much more. In addition, Snack Shack offers popcorn, slushies, candy, sodas and water. Snack Shack also doubles as a HI-FI merchandise store where you can pickup t-shirts, hats, hoodies, stickers and more from our venues.
Main Bar
Main Bar is located to your right when you enter the venue. It’s the largest container in the venue and serves up the largest selection of beer, wine, spirits, specialty cocktails and boozie slushies. Guests must be 21+ to enter this area.
Stage Bar
Stage Bar is located on the left when you enter the venue, and is the bar closest to the stage. This location serves a selection of beer, wine and cocktails and is the only bar in the venue that serves draft beer.
Sidestage Lounge Bar
This bar is tucked away on the end of Stage Bar, inside of our VIP area known as Sidestage Lounge. This location serves the same options you will find at Stage Bar, but in a private intimate setting.
View seating maps for this venue
The majority of HI-FI Annex shows are general admission, standing-room-only. There is a limited amount of seating upgrades available in Sidestage Lounge. Contact the box office to secure a seating upgrade for your show at boxoffice@hifiindy.com. Shows that are reserved or partially reserved seating configurations will have information or purchase options directly on the event listing.
Can I leave and re-enter the venue?
No. Re-entry is not permitted at this venue with the exception of the external smoking area.
Do you offer ADA, handicap or special needs options?
There are 2 handicapped parking spots in the lot located across Prospect St. closest to El Arado Mexican Grill. The box office handles any special needs or ADA seating requests at boxoffice@hifiindy.com.
Where is the box office located?
Getting tickets to our shows is super easy! You have a few options, depending on how you like to roll:
Online: Grab your tickets in advance from our official websites, hifiindy.com and mokbpresents.com, or through our trusted ticketing partners tixr.com and seetickets.us.
In Person: Swing by one of our three convenient box office locations around the Murphy Arts Center building and grab tickets with no service fees:
HI-FI Annex Box Office: The box office is located at the front entrance off of St. Patrick St.
Main Box Office at Virginia Ave Mercantile: Located at 1043 Virginia Ave Suite 2 (between Easy Rider and La Margarita). Open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to 5 pm.
HI-FI Box Office: Found at 1043 Virginia Ave Suite 4 (at the main entrance to HI-FI). Open only on show nights, starting 1 hour before published show times until 10 pm.
I lost something at the show. Who do I contact?
Have you misplaced something during one of our events? Don’t worry, we’re here to help reunite you with your belongings! While we can’t take responsibility for lost or stolen items, we’re committed to assisting you in any way we can.
Found items are securely stored at our Virginia Ave Mercantile & Box Office until they’re claimed. Please note that items lost during late-night events might take until the next morning to reach our lost and found. We know you might be eager to retrieve your belongings (like that phone you’re pinging outside our door at 6 am), but our team typically wraps up late-night events and may not be available until later in the morning.
For lost items, please follow the outlined process rather than popping into Easy Rider in the early hours. They’re open early, but our restaurant team is busy during weekends and can’t assist with lost items during busy service hours.
To inquire about lost items, shoot us an email at boxoffice@hifiindy.com. Mercantile hours are Monday through Friday, 10 am to 6 pm, and Saturdays from 9 am to 5 pm.
Let’s work together to get your goods back to you as quickly as possible!
What is your refund policy?
What’s Your Refund Policy for Postponed Shows?
If a show gets postponed, don’t sweat it! We’ll shoot you an email to let you know about the change, and if you’re cool with the new date, no further action is needed on your part.We’ll be working diligently to find a new date for the show, and we’ll keep you updated every step of the way. But if you can’t make it to the rescheduled gig, we’ve got your back. You’ll have a generous 30-day window following the announcement of the new date to request a refund.
For those who paid with cash at our box office, just drop us a line at boxoffice@hifiindy.com for further instructions on processing your refund.
Please bear with us as we explore rescheduling options with the tour. Your patience is much appreciated as we work to present the best possible show experience for you.
What’s the Refund Policy for Canceled Shows?
In the unfortunate event of a canceled show, don’t fret! If you purchased your tickets online, your refund will be processed automatically. Just sit tight and allow 3-5 business days for the refund to appear in your bank account.
No need to lift a finger! However, there are a few scenarios where you might need to reach out to our box office:
- If you paid cash at our box office.
- If you’ve received a new or different card since your original purchase.
- If you haven’t seen the refund in your account after 5 business days.
What Happens if a Show Gets Rescheduled?
No worries! If a show you’ve already grabbed tickets for gets rescheduled, your tickets will still be valid for the new date. We’ll shoot you an email to let you know about the change, and if you’re good to go for the new date, no further action is needed on your part.
However, if you can’t make it to the rescheduled gig, we’ve got you covered. You’ll have a generous 30 days from the announcement of the new date to request a refund. Just reach out directly to our box office to kickstart the process.
Beware of counterfeit tickets. How do I tell if my ticket is valid?
It’s crucial for all buyers to exercise caution when purchasing tickets from unauthorized sites and ticket resellers. Tixr and SeeTickets are the only two ticket vendors supported at our venues. Unfortunately, this is a widespread issue affecting venues nationwide, and true fans often find themselves at a loss. Regrettably, there’s little we can do in such situations. Since the original transaction didn’t occur through our authorized ticketing partners, we lack the necessary information to assist. It’s disheartening to witness fans being taken advantage of, especially on platforms like Craigslist, Facebook, StubHub, VividSeats, SeatGeek, and others. We are only obligated to honor valid tickets purchased through our approved channels.
Can I purchase tickets in person without fees?
Yes. HI-FI Annex box office is located at the main entrance off of St. Patrick St. The box office is open 1 hour prior to the published door time. Additionally, the new and primary box office is located two doors down from HI-FI Annex in Suite 2. This box office is open Monday through Friday 10am – 6pm for fee-free ticket purchases. HI-FI Annex accepts cash as well as all major credit cards for ticket purchases.
Do you have free WI-FI?
Yes. HI-FI Annex offers free WI-FI during all shows. Simply select the HI-FI Free WI-FI network and you are all set.
Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Sun Tour
Start Time: 6:00 pm
Buy Tickets
ARTIST PROFILE | Bury Tomorrow
It’s never too late to be what you might have been. Sometimes you just need a push to take the plunge. Few people would be greater advocates for this truth than Bury Tomorrow.
Faced 18 months ago, following a period of external and internal strife, with the very real reality that it might be time to pack up their successes and close the book on a storied career of 15 years, with their hands forced and backs to the wall Bury Tomorrow instead picked up fate’s gauntlet and set about writing the chapter they had always imagined.
Today, new album The Seventh Sun stands as testament to the bonds and belief required to shape themselves a new reality, a new sound, and a new future.
“The conversations around our future were very real,” vocalist Dani Winter-Bates offers today. It was never meant to be this way, of course. Belatedly released during the uncertain first wave of the COVID pandemic in June 2020, sixth album Cannibal nonetheless marked a commercial and critical high point for the band, charting in the UK’s Top 10 and at number three in Germany and helping tip the band over the career-to-date 200 million stream landmark. Yet shorn of the ability to properly celebrate its release and accomplishments, let alone stand on stage to perform it, for guitarist Kristan Dawson the songs that comprised Cannibal “never really came to their fullest life”. For perpetual road dogs, now shackled at home Bury Tomorrow for the first time felt the frustrating directionless of limbo that affected so many artists the world over. Perhaps it was no surprise when, soon enough, conversations concluded that the band would be parting with founding guitarist/vocalist Jason Cameron in the summer of 2021.
And so with nowhere to hide from urgent questions about their future – “Do we walk away? Do we start something new? Do we continue on, however that may work?” as Winter-Bates assesses – necessity hit. Turns out that it is not only the mother of invention, but reinvention, too. “I feel like we all knew what Bury Tomorrow was, at least musically, but I also felt we had become quite set in our ways,” picks up Dawson. “We had long had the desire to push the boundaries and not write to what Bury Tomorrow had become. I think in that moment I felt like Bury Tomorrow could actually become what we always hoped the initial blueprint for this band would be. It was never about becoming a different band, but pushing the boundaries of what our band could be.”
“That was very freeing,” adds Winter-Bates. “Because if we were going to continue with Bury Tomorrow, we knew we were doing it by choice, not because of a feeling that we had to. We had to look internally at what Bury Tomorrow was. We knew that if it was to continue, we couldn’t simply replicate what the band had been. We had to reset with a different outlook, and a different sense of being.”
A different line-up, too. In Cameron’s sole place, enter both vocalist/keyboardist Tom Prendergast and guitarist Ed Hartwell: a division of labour that would allow a greater focus not only on maximising individual talents, but collectively expanding them, too. Both Winter-Bates and Dawson can speak no higher of their friends than they do, waxing lyrical not only over their technical prowess and dexterity, but of a fresh perspective, energy and freedom they helped instil in a previously well-oiled but highly structured metalcore songwriting machine.
“It was really just letting ourselves say, ‘What best serves the songs we’re writing?’” Winter-Bates explains of this fundamentally retooled approach as a newly formed six-piece – completed by Bury Tomorrow stalwarts Davyd Winter-Bates (bass) and Adam Jackson (drums). “‘Is it a good song? Or is it a good metalcore song?’ Because actually we want to write great songs. That isn't turning our back on metalcore. But I think if we're only striving to be a really great metalcore band, we are you doing ourself a disservice. We created genres so you can transcend out of those genres.”
If standalone singles Death (Ever Colder) and Life (Paradise Denied), released little over a month apart earlier this year, gave a first glimpse at what lay instore, then The Seventh Sun amounts to the glorious arrival at a destination in this new era. Not Bury Tomorrow’s final destination, either, you must understand – but one that both perfectly encapsulates their revivified present while offering further tantalising hints at an unwritten future.
This is no beast tamed, but rather one with its teeth and claws sharpened, intent on killing with targeted precision rather than with overwhelming bludgeoning. Refocused yet no more restrained, The Seventh Sun’s expanded sonic palette platforms sky-high melodies, layered with textured atmosphere, cloaking an underlying savagery.
Convening once more with producer Dan Weller (a collaboration that bore fruit on both Cannibal and its predecessor, 2018’s Black Flame, and gave, in Winter-Bates’ words, a “consistency and [grounding] in what we are good at and what we can be better at”), at his Middle Farm Studios, the band’s only conscious creative decision leading into The Seventh Sun was, as Winter-Bates nods, “not being limited by formulas.” “Rather than writing to a template, we allowed our writing to take us along to where the song was headed,” he says.
“Metalcore is ingrained into my writing. But I feel that this time, I could be inspired by different things,” Dawson agrees. Names as diverse as Bjork, Sepultura, Korn and Thrice are namechecked in quick succession, as is the ‘90s trance music on which the guitarist grew up. Majesty – a piano-led ballad that sits at the heart of the album – began life as an acoustic sketch by Dawson and Prendergast (and described by Winter-Bates as “so good that I told Tom he couldn’t join the band unless he brought that song with him.) In dissecting The Carcass King, meanwhile, Winter-Bates references Slipknot, 30 Seconds To Mars and even the Waltz. The song also introduces the first female vocals to ever appear on a Bury Tomorrow track, courtesy of Cody Frost.
Winter-Bates points to that song as indicative of the new spirit that surrounded the sessions; one of collaboration and confidence-building support, where no idea or feedback was off-limits and leaps into the unknown – alongside avenues that felt at times almost regressively familiar for the album’s forward-facing vision – were embraced with reassuring unity. “It’s about being proud of the instrument that you control, but equally not having that ego to put a stamp on other people's creative journey,” the frontman posits. “It’s freeing when you don’t say no to an idea based on a preconception of what we should or could be. You write best when it’s cohesive and people feel able to trust each other to really put their best foot forward.”
The results are audible across The Seventh Sun. With Dawson and Hartwell being friends outside of the band, the innate ease with which the former’s leads coalesce with his new sparring partner’s rhythms should perhaps come as no surprise, yet both accentuate and spotlight each other’s abilities. Conversely, Prendergast and Winter-Bates had no such prior relationship on which to build one professionally, yet the dynamism of the newcomer’s abilities brings new range and character to Bury Tomorrow, while further driving some of Winter-Bates’ most ferocious performances ever. Perhaps for the first time, the duelling vocals of Bury Tomorrow sound not in competition with each other, but exist as one unified entity – differing sides of the same coin, contrasting shades of the same one voice.
That interplay, too, allowed Winter-Bates to stretch himself as a songwriter, tap into his passion for the cadence of poetry, and draw from vocal influences ranging from La Dispute’s Jordan Dreyer to Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and The Black Dahlia Murder’s much-missed Trevor Strnad.
With Cannibal’s lyrical content focused solely on an introspective look at the frontman’s journey with his mental health, on The Seventh Sun Winter-Bates took the learnings of such personal songwriting and sought to turn them outwards. “A lot of the themes of the record are actually thinking about the band again; it’s really reflecting on where we are at and our place in society,” he begins. “Every single theme as you go to the album will be about a different concept of operating in chaos, whether that is the destruction and the rebuilding, whether that is resetting the clock, beginning again.
“It’d be really easy to dwell in the darkness and sit there and be like, ‘The world is fucked, everything is destroyed.’ But what do we do? We somehow have to operate in that chaos.
“Recovery is an interesting song to me, because it is the most similar to Cannibal: an introspective look of my own mental health once again. But it asks the question of how I can live in such chaos – what is recovery, then, if I'm going to live with this forever? The Carcass King is another: this is life, this is where we are, we have to operate like this we have to move forward like this. It’s a demi theme almost, a thematic feel that you’ll be able to sense through the record. You’ll have moments of like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got this’; you'll have other moments where things seem overwhelmingly hard. And then you’ll have other moments, like Forced Divide, which is pure anger. The Seventh Sun [the title track] is savage, but you know what, sometimes life is savage.”
Elsewhere, Care – the arena-ready album-closer described by Dawson as “showing us what we needed to do to make Bury Tomorrow musically different” – finds Winter-Bates “[looking] back at when we have reached out for help and support and been slapped to the ground; it calls out the behaviours of others”. Begin Again ruminates on how “we have the control and ability to reset time, to turn around a path we are on – you are in control of your own destiny”, and Wrath “is about dealing with loss. It’s understanding that whilst death hurts, we live on in memories and the actions of those we’ve influenced.”
The thematic threads weaved through The Seventh Sun are met in kind by a throughline that musically stitches together each of its 12 tracks – an idea that Dawson has sought to execute for years. “Every single song sets up the next part of the record,” he reveals. “I wanted it to feel like a one long body of work.” In doing so, the album takes on its own kind its own sonic story-telling. “I feel like I was musically at where Dan was at lyrically,” Dawson suggests.
All of this combines, as Winter-Bates asserts, to exhibit “the best version of Bury Tomorrow people will have heard.” Positivity, and possibility, now seems boundless, where not so long ago doubts persisted. “That is as much to do with Tom and Ed joining the band as it is about the rest of us,” Dawson notes. “I think we'd convinced ourselves at times that we weren't friends, when actually, we’re family. You can’t have this sort of life experience and not be and not be as emotionally connected to each other as we are.”
The guitarist points to the album’s numerical title. “You know, there is something in the number seven that is very representative of change. There’s a renewal aspect to it – seven days in a week, seven hells, and so forth. And on our seventh album, that’s the case for us, too. I hope fans hear how much we appreciate the opportunity we have to make music for them. It’s an opportunity for us to showcase our love for, put our stamp on, and represent UK metal. What a privilege that is for us, and we’re ready to prove that we’re doing everything for those right reasons.”
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